Google AdWords Updates Ad Text Trademark Policy

Last Thursday, Google made a rather large announcement regarding AdWords’ policies on how trademarks are used in ad texts.  The policy change only applies to advertisers in the U.S. and ads being displayed to U.S. users on the Search and Content Networks.  What’s changing?  I’ll defer to Google:

Under certain criteria, you can use trademark terms in your ad text in the U.S. even if you don’t own that trademark or have explicit approval from the trademark owner to use it.

This change comes as “…an effort to improve ad quality and user experience.” How does that work exactly? Well, the whole point of this update is to allow legitimate advertisers selling brand-name products to use trademarks without fear of retribution. In lieu of offering up a generic ad to searchers, these advertisers can just come right out and say what brands are being sold in their ad texts.

The official announcement was made on 05/14 – but Google will not begin displaying these new “trademark friendly” ads until June (06/15).  If you need a refresher on the official criteria for what is and isn’t allowed when using trademarks in ads, head on over to the AdWords help section!